First Activation

With Jerry secure, we could have a closer look around the barn. Stacked high against the left wall were crates of bottled water and piles of various food items, mostly in cans. On the workbench, were five respirators and an equal number of ear defenders. It was also where Jerry had left a rifle. He’d regret not keeping that by his side. In the right hand corner of the barn was a large, black metal object in the shape of a rectangle. It was about half the size of a single bed and had a chrome pole protruding out of the top to make the total height around six feet tall.

Jack picked up the rifle and checked the magazine. He clicked it back into place.

“It’s an AR-15 with a full mag. The same as yours.”

“When do you think the other people are going to arrive?” Lea asked.

“Soon I reckon. Did you hear Control say, ‘What happened to NY patrol six’? That must mean there are a few patrols in the area, but it’s unlikely they will be all based here. Still one of us had better keep watch outside the barn,” I answered.

“No,” Jack disagreed, “we should set up an ambush behind a couple of trees on the road leading to the gate. I bet they’ll drive right in here if they’re as stupid as patrol six.”

“What do you mean stupid?” Lea said.

“They drove right up to Greg’s house. He might not have been expecting what it, but it still wasn’t exactly subtle. At our place, they didn’t shoot Bernie straight away. If I were them, in a hostile situation, I’d have taken Bernie out immediately and picked off Lea from range with the rifle.”

“Charming,” she said, looking slightly surprised.

“They weren’t even watching out for us,” Jack continued, “even though Jerry probably told them of our existence as soon as he saw Bernie.”

“We’ll set up the ambush and wait,” I said.

“What shall we do with him?” Lea said, pointing at Jerry.

Jack picked up a dirty rag from next to the generator, walked over to Jerry who was just starting to regain consciousness and stuffed it into his mouth. His eyes opened wide when he realised he was restrained.

Jack leant down, “Just you wait.”

As we walked away, Jerry spat out the rag and shouted, “Fuck you.”

Jack turned back, ran to the table and smashed his fist into Jerry’s left eye. His head hit the table, and he looked dazed. He then grabbed Jerry’s hair and forced the rag back into his mouth as he struggled and tried to wriggle free. We had done a good job restraining him, he didn’t have a chance. I grabbed an extra piece of rope and wrapped it around his head, tying it around his mouth to stop him from spitting the rag out again. We didn’t need Jerry calling out when his backup arrived.

We ran to the top of the road and spotted three decent sized trees that would provide a good hiding place to spring our ambush. They were within a few yards of each other, on the left side of the road.

We waited in silence for the next hour in case anyone approached on foot.

“What shall we do about Bernie? We can’t just leave him lying on the front lawn of the house,” Lea said.

“We can go back and give Bernie a burial after we’ve finished here,” I replied.

Jack held his arm in the air.

“Quiet. I think I can hear the sound of an engine.”

We waited and listened. Something was approaching. A minute later, a black Range Rover appeared in the distance.

“Jack, you and I will empty our magazines into the windows and doors. Lea, you run out and finish them off if required. Are we all okay with that?”

They both nodded.

As the Range Rover approached the turn off into Jerry’s drive, it slowed to a stop. I glanced around the tree and saw that two people dressed in black were in the vehicle. One was a man wearing thick glasses and the other a woman with her hair pulled back severely from her face. This certainly was a coordinated effort, but I had the feeling that we weren’t exactly dealing with elite soldiers. The Range Rover turned into the driveway and came slowly towards us. The woman in the passenger seat was holding a rifle up to her chest, from that position; she wouldn’t have time to react.

As the driver’s window came level with me, I shouted, “Now!”

Jack and I stepped out from behind our trees and started firing into the driver’s side window. It shattered, and then collapsed. We’d scored a number of direct hits into the side of the driver’s head and body. He was slumped sideways towards the passenger who was also motionless as the Range Rover rolled past us and came to a halt. Lea ran around to the passenger’s window and fired two shots. A spray of blood covered the interior of the windshield.

She looked back at us, “Her eyes were moving.”

“Let’s get them out of the way in case anyone else is coming,” I said.

We dragged the corpses out and put them into the back seats before taking the magazines out of their rifles and reloading ours, they were all the same type, AR-15’s, confirming these people were probably all part of the same group. I put the Range Rover into neutral and we rolled it around the side of Jerry’s house, out of view from the road.